Tips and Tricks Articles
Explore a range of ARCHICAD how-to’s and tips from our experts
Project Preview, ARCHICAD, and BIMx
Project Preview is a feature that often gets ignored. It’s not BIG BIM. It’s not even little bim. It really isn’t BIM at all. But it is fun and will increase your enjoyment of ARCHICAD. Project Preview is simply the image associated with the ARCHICAD...
Introduction to ARCHICAD Markers
Mastering Marker (and thus Drawing) references is a paradigm shift when moving from the old ways to ARCHICAD. Once upon a time, we had to spend hours coordinating all this information. Do the sections on the plans reference the right section numbers on the sections...
Not Every Problem Calls for a Hammer
In the previous three articles on ARCHICAD Tools we covered the basic concepts of how to pick the ideal Tool to model various elements in ARCHICAD. If you are just joining us, here are links to those posts: A Tool by Any Other Name — Part 1 A Tool by Any Other Name —...
The Right Tool for the Job
This is the third post in my series on ARCHICAD Tools. If you’re just joining us, here are links to first two posts: A Tool by Any Other Name — Part 1 A Tool by Any Other Name — Part 2 Not Every Problem Calls for a Hammer It is technically possible to model...
First Fridays for Education – May
The GRAPHISOFT North America Student Design Competition is in full swing. Entrants are already hard at work designing ways to put Philadelphia’s rich history in front of the millions of tourists who visit it annually. A temporary mobile visitor center made from a shipping container can be moved to one of many venues that welcome event attendees.
A TOOL BY ANY OTHER NAME – PART 2
How am I going to model this Octopus? ARCHICAD doesn’t have an Octopus Tool! Previously we looked at the potential uses of Tools in general and how a Tool’s name can be misleading. While a tool might be named after its primary use, what the name implies is not...
A TOOL BY ANY OTHER NAME – PART 1
What is in a Name? A common difficulty for new users is figuring out how to model the desired geometry in ARCHICAD; and make it look correct in section, elevation, plan and 3D, while avoiding unnecessary drafting or redundant model elements. This struggle is often...
First Fridays for Education – April
The GRAPHISOFT North America Student Design Competition is in full swing. Entrants are already hard at work designing ways to put Philadelphia’s rich history in front of the millions of tourists who visit it annually. A temporary mobile visitor center made from a shipping container can be moved to one of many venues that welcome event attendees.
The I in Schedules stands for IFC
In a recent blog post, we looked at why we should care about IFC. Now we will look at one way to use IFC. Don’t panic, this is not going to get overly technical. I won’t get into naming conventions or how your project is doomed if you don’t use the...
First Fridays for Education – March
A new school year, new software and new blog features for just for you! Introducing “First Fridays for Education”, every first Friday of the month we will tailor our post to best serve you, the students and professors who are pushing the limits of design and productivity with ARCHICAD.
First Fridays for Education – February
A new school year, new software and new blog features for just for you! Introducing “First Fridays for Education”, every first Friday of the month, you’ll see a new video tutorial, along with inspiring stories of students and professors who are pushing the limits of design and productivity with ARCHICAD.
12 Steps For Starting a New Project in ARCHICAD
When designing by hand, the steps to starting a new project are simple: grab a writing implement, a surface to write on, and start being creative. As long as you have a pencil, pen, crayon… and a notebook, napkin, scrap of plywood… you are ready to go. If...
First Fridays for Education – January
A new school year, new software and new blog features for just for you! Introducing “First Fridays for Education”, every first Friday of the month, you’ll see a new video tutorial, along with inspiring stories of students and professors who are pushing the limits of design and productivity with ARCHICAD.
Sun Studies and moving beyond what we always did
To end my post on the Where, When, and Who of renderings, I did a quick sun study. Like I mentioned in my followup article on bettering siding, I was just showing off what we can do in ARCHICAD. Here’s the video: With CineRender it is so easy to make cool...
From CineRender to the 3D Window
In my article on lap siding and baked on shadows, I discussed creating an image-based Surface. Starting with a photo, I walked through the steps required to get a nice looking model in the 3D Window, and a strong starting point for developing renderings throughout the...
Lap Siding and Baked On Shadows
In my previous post, I wrote about the creation of a simple rendering. Or really I talked about incorporating existing conditions to improve a basic rendering. The focus was on site context—location, time, and also the viewer/client. But there was one other piece of...
First Fridays for Education – December
A new school year, new software and new blog features for just for you! Introducing “First Fridays for Education”, every first Friday of the month, you’ll see a new video tutorial, along with inspiring stories of students and professors who are pushing the limits of design and productivity with ARCHICAD.
Maximized Work Environments in ARCHICAD
I’ve been thinking a lot about Work Environments since ARCHICAD 19 was released. ARCHICAD 19: now is the time to fix your Work Environment Shoegnome Work Environment for ARCHICAD 19 An ARCHICAD Work Environment that supports how you work is going to save time,...
Easy but not Obvious
A reader of mine had an issue with my ARCHICAD 19 Work Environment. He was an experienced user—in subsequent conversations, I believe he mentioned he first learned ARCHICAD 4.55—but the differences in my Work Environment (WE) had left him stumbling. In the end we...
First Fridays for Education – November
A new school year, new software and new blog features for just for you! Introducing “First Fridays for Education”, every first Friday of the month, you’ll see a new video tutorial, along with inspiring stories of students and professors who are pushing the limits of design and productivity with ARCHICAD.
Sloppy Modeling that isn’t Making Me Sad
One of the reasons why I love working in ARCHICAD is that there is no one true way to use the software. There are specific tools for various building elements, but you don’t HAVE to use them. You could build a model without using the Wall Tool. You could make...
MEP and Building Materials – Using ARCHICAD wrong for the right reasons
The title of this blog post is a bit facetious. I’m not actually using ARCHICAD incorrectly. I’m just using it creatively. Don’t get me wrong. There are definitely ways to use ARCHICAD wrong for the wrong reasons. But there are also ways to break the...
ARCHICAD 19 and Faster IFC Property Management
In the release of ARCHICAD 19 the process of IFC Property management has been enhanced. One of the great data management features is mapping project properties and IFC schedule data. If you want to create a new property, such as “Item Cost” for all the...
Label-obsession! Describing everything from Day One!
I think I have a label problem. Or maybe it’s an addiction. Label-mania! Where does your data live? Label-insanity! How do I show all the Data? Label-hysteria! It all looks the same!? Data, data, data, data, Lore, B-4 BIM is as much about collecting data as it...
Label-hysteria! It all looks the same!?
I’m going a bit bonkers for Labels in ARCHICAD 19 Label-mania! Where does your data live? Label-insanity! How do I show all the Data? Within minutes of sharing my previous Label post, Patrick May (Walker Warner BIM Blog) made this comment: Now even a simple ID...
First Fridays for Education
A new school year, new software and new blog features for just for you! Introducing “First Fridays for Education”, every first Friday of the month, you’ll see a new video tutorial, along with inspiring stories of students and professors who are pushing the limits of design and productivity with ARCHICAD.
Label-insanity! How do I show all the Data?
In my last post I wrote about where your data lives—in the View, in the Element, or in the Project—and then talked about how that relates to the improved Labeling capabilities of ARCHICAD 19. If you haven’t read that post, please do. In this post I want to talk...
Label-mania! Where does your data live?
The image above is a reference to this article about the art historical context of BIM. That image is on my mind because it’s central to the talk I’m giving next month at the CRAN Symposium in Minneapolis. It’s probably more accurate to say the first...
Does that Still not Work? Is this Still the Best Solution?
As I was writing my recent post on all the little changes in ARCHICAD 19, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Bradley Madison, the BIM Manager at Hennon Group Architects, PA. I don’t recall if this occurred via LinkedIn or at the 2015 GRAPHISOFT North...
